Vietnam update

Hello! We are in Vietnam, and whilst Mark is out hunting for doughnuts, I thought I'd drop a line and tell you what we are up to.

First, yes, doughnuts! They are doughballs, deep fried, and covered with sugar, brown sugar, sesame seeds, or powdered sugar. Mark absolutely LOVES them. We first discovered them in Hanoi. Now that we are in Hue he absolutely has to find more!

Our first impression of how great Vietnam would be was when we hit the ground. All the Vietnamese on board cheered, clapped and then stood up to immediately get their things out of the overhead. We had JUST hit the ground, so needless to say the attendants yelled then got from their seats and had to sit down the eager-beavers. :) I guess they were excited to be home!

We got into a van to take us to the city. A nice man sat beside Elaine (Jones- our traveling friend with her two kids) and talked to her the entire 45 minutes from the airport. It so turns out he knew the owner of the hotel where we were dropped off! After searching for about an hour at other hotels it turns out this was indeed the cheapest and that is where we stayed! It was a clean, nice hotel. We then went to book our tickets for our next adventure and then off to the sites!

We first went to Hoa Lo Hotel, better known as Hanoi Hilton. Mark got his picture taken beside John McCain'
s flight suit, and the kids got an interesting idea of the war, and how well our prisoners were treated.

Then we went to a museum about all the ethnic groups in Vietnam. A very well laid out museum! The kids even got to go into some of the recreated homes and buildings! There were some outside activities that also kept them happy and occupied. Of course pictures will be posted later, when I can upload them.

Then we went in town and got our tickets for the water puppet show. FANTASTIC!! Sooooo cool. It's a puppet show on water!

Dinner and then we crashed. What an eventful first day!

We got up the next morning before our hotel staff and had to arouse them to get them to open the door. We found GREAT noodles for breakfast and Mark and Casey went to the lake and came back with reports of sword-dancing, weight-lifting and tai chi. Of course I had to check it out. Mark and Marcus ended up joining a game of hacky-sak. Then Mark and I did some tai chi with a group of old ladies (it's a great morning stretch-work out!!! I like it!!) and then we ventured back to our hotel. Our staff was still sleeping in the lobby. :) So we went out looking some more. That's when Mark found the doughnuts!

By 8:15 the bus picked us up for Halong Bay. By noon we were on the boat getting lunch. We sailed to a cave and walked through. Because our group was all split up the boys and I went on our own. Our guide's most informative information in the cave was "Where there are lights on the rock, there's something interesting there. Look for it." :) So we did, and found lots of other fun stuff to do, like jump back and forth between sidewalks over sinkholes.

Back on the boat we went kayaking. Then back on the boat for swimming and dinner. Swimming was in the bay, beside the boat, not on the boat. While swimming the 7-11 boats were beside us, asking us to buy something. These are cool little boats fillled with drinks, snacks, wine, live octopus, trinkets and such, all to sell for your convenience.

ooops. Better go, off to more adventures! More later!
(please forgive my spelling, no time for spell check!)